Human Resources committee  What I mean is that 82% of laid-off workers who have contributed to employment insurance are eligible for benefits.

Human Resources committee  Yes, here are the facts: among those people who have paid into the employment insurance fund and whose termination of employment makes them eligible, 82% receive benefits.

Human Resources committee  It is the opposite: 18% of those who have contributed were not eligible, that is because they did not accumulate enough hours of work or perhaps for other reasons. This 82% is essentially the rate of contributors who have received their benefits.

Human Resources committee  I can speak to that, Mr. Chair. The fund is intended to be a more flexible instrument than the current labour market agreement funding that flows to provinces, but like that existing instrument, it will be delivered by provinces and territories. It will benefit from the mechani

Human Resources committee  I do have that number. I can report that in 2008 there were 20,000 organizations that were supported, creating 36,000 summer jobs. So I would presume it would be proportional to that level of investment.

Human Resources committee  I don't have the exact number, but we could easily get that for you based on the.... It would be the same cost per intervention that we'd be anticipating, so it would be the same proportional impact of the dollars.

Human Resources committee  David, are you prepared to...?

Human Resources committee  I'm going to have to call in another of my colleagues, Frank Fedyk, the associate assistant deputy minister for the strategic policy and research branch. Could Frank come to the table?

Human Resources committee  Through the Canada social transfer the provinces report publicly to their residents in terms of how that funding is used, and these are the public announcements of the spaces they've made in terms of the commitment of how they're using the funds that have been provided.

Human Resources committee  I can comment on those elements of the budget that deal with retraining. As I mentioned in my remarks, there are two main transfer programs to provinces, one through the labour market development agreements, one billion dollars over two years, and this new strategic training and

Human Resources committee  Long-tenured--I was going to speak to that next. That's the other measure that is really a collaborative measure between the two orders of government. The way it is envisioned to work.... At present provinces in a not very systematic fashion sometimes provide additional financial

Human Resources committee  Sure. I will start by explaining the current practice with respect to severance pay and then what the budget measure does on top of that. At present, separation payments are treated as earnings, and for purposes of employment insurance are allocated over a number of weeks. So th

Human Resources committee  I'd be happy to speak to this measure. This, as I mentioned, is going to be implemented in association with the current labour market agreements that we have with the provinces and territories, through which there's an annual transfer of funding to deliver programming that was

Human Resources committee  This will be a two-year add-on to the existing arrangement. It's temporary funding that will ramp up and then be withdrawn, if you will, at the end of the two-year period.

Human Resources committee  That's a period of six years.